Some time ago I discovered the Bachmann City Scenes kits, which are rare examples of larger buildings in plastic kits in HO scale. I bought the Ambassador Hotel on eBay to test the kits and it seemed very promising.
My first step was to spray paint all the sandstone parts, shade them with a medium brown wash and finally highlight everything with a very light grey.
Since the building will be rather large, I made a wooden base of very thin four-layered plywood, which I salvalged from various furniture some time ago. That gave a nice and stable foundation for the building and the sidewalks. I made room in the back of the building for a small loading scene and other details.
The large doors facing the main staircase would allow a lot of light to enter the interior, so here I placed some tile paper from Scalescenes.
The sandstone windows on the first floor are rather large, so I decided to create a bit of interior decoration so the insides wouldn’t appear as an empty shell. The left side of the hotel would house the restaurant, so I gave it a light wooden floor and scratchbuilt some tables and tablecloths. The wallpaper is also from Scalescenes and the door came from my bit box.
Since I model the 1930’s I decided to cut open the gate on the left side of the photo, because it looked much too modern for my taste. But I wonder what the purpose of the gate is, since two loading docks are present on the back of the building? Perhaps it is a way of getting large amounts of luggage inside?
On the right side I made room for the lobby. I had run out of the printed floors from Scalescenes, so I just used a brush to imitate a wooden floor. It will be quite dark in there, so I hope it will look OK from the outside.
The furniture is made from wooden strips and balsa.
On the outer wall I placed some more decorations from Scalescenes to make the lobby look comfortable 🙂
The interior is very visible in the light, but I wonder how it will look once the upper floors are installed?
A simple counter to act as background for photos taken in front of the hotel.
It looks somewhat bare from the outside, but I hope it will suffice once the darkness descends upon the interior. 🙂
The two large back walls were a bit of challenge to glue, but it always helps using Scotch tape for keeping the corners together. In the backyard, there will be room for a small scene and lots of junk!
The result of three evenings worth of building, seen from above. I am really enjoying this kit 🙂
The restaurant now also has a waiter, chairs as well as a painting. I look very much forward to adding details to the sidewalks as well.
As part of the building proces, I enjoy searching for period photos from Eastern cities for inspiration and the internet is literally filled with great inspiration.
Continue to Part II…
Epoch 